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Thera 20.2: Parapariya
Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Theragatha >> Thera(249):Parapariya Adapted from the Archaic Translation by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids. Note: 'C' in Pali text is pronounced as 'ch' as in 'China'. ---- Chapter XVI. Twenty Verses =249. Pārāpariya= Reborn in this Buddha-age at Sāvatthī as the son of a certain very eminent brahmin(priest), he was called, when adult, after his family name Pārāpara, 'the Pārāpariya' (Pārā-parite).1 Well educated in brahmin(priest) wisdom and accomplishments, he went one day into the Jeta Grove Vihāra(monastery), at the Lord(Buddha)'s preaching hour, and took his seat at the fringe of the assembly. The Lord(Buddha), meditating his character, 295 taught the Sutta, called 'Practice of Faculties,'2 upon which Pārāpariya found faith and entered the Monk’s order. After learning the Sutta by heart, he pondered over the meaning, thinking: 'In verses the meaning would appear so and so.' Thus pondering on the subject of sense-perception he established insight, and in due time won arahantship(enlightenment). Later he expressed his thoughts in verse as follows: ---- 726 Samaṇassa ahu cintā pārāsariyassa bhikkhuno,|| Ekakassa nisinnassa pavivittassa jhāyino.|| || 727 Kimānupubbaɱ puriso kiɱ vataɱ kiɱ samācaraɱ,|| Attano kiccakirissa na ca kiñci viheṭhaye.|| || 728 Indriyāni manussānaɱ hitāya ahitāya ca,|| Arakkhitāni ahitāya rakkhitāni hitāya ca.|| || 729 Indriyānevaɱ sārakkhaɱ indriyāni ca gopayaɱ,|| Attano kiccakārisusa na ca nakiñci viheṭhaye.|| || 730 Cakkhundriyaɱ ce rūpesu gacchantaɱ anivārayaɱ,|| Anādīnavadassāvī so dukkhā na hi muccati.|| || 731 Sotindriyaɱ ce1 saddesu gacchantaɱ anivārayaɱ,|| Anādīnavadassāvī so mukkhā na hi muccati.|| || 732 Anissaraṇadassāvī 73 gandhe ce paṭisevati,|| Na so muccati dukkhamhā gandhesu adhimucchito.|| || 733 Ambilaɱ madhuraggaɱ ca tittakaggamanussaraɱ,|| Rasataṇhāya gadhito hadayaɱ nāvabujjhati.|| || 734 Subhānyappaṭikūlāni phoṭṭhabbāni anussaraɱ,|| Ratto ragādhikaraṇaɱ vividhaɱ vindate dukhaɱ.|| || 735 Manaɱ cetehi dhammehi yo na sakkoti rakkhituɱ,|| Tato naɱ dukkhamanveti sabbehetehi pañcahi.|| || 736 Pubbalohitasampuṇṇaɱ bahussa kuṇapassa ca,|| Naravīrakataɱ vagguɱ samuggamiva cittitaɱ.|| || 737 Kaṭukaɱ madhurassādaɱ piyanibandhanaɱ dukhaɱ,|| Khuraɱva madhunā littaɱ ullihaɱ nāvabujjhati.|| || 738 Itthirūpe itthisare phoṭṭhabbe'pi itthiyā,|| Itthigandhesu sāratto vividhaɱ vindate dukhaɱ.|| || 739 Itthisotāni sabbāni sandanti pañca pañcasū,|| Tesamāvaraṇaɱ kātuɱ so sakkoti viriyavā.|| || 740 So atthavā so dhammaṭṭho so dukkho so vicakkhaṇo,|| Kareyya ramamāno pi kiccaɱ dhammatthasaɱhitaɱ.|| || 741 Atho sīdati saññuttaɱ majje kiccaɱ niratthakaɱ,|| Na taɱ kiccanti maññitvā appamatto vicakkhaṇo.|| || 742 Yaɱ ca atthena saññuntaɱ yā ca dhammagatā rati,|| Taɱ samādāya vattetha sā hi uttamā rati.|| || 743 Uccāvacehupāyehi|| Paresamabhijigīsati,|| Hantvā vadhitvā atha socayitvā,|| Ālopati sāhasā yo paresaɱ.|| || 744 Tacchanto āṇiyā āṇiɱ nihanti balavā yathā,|| Indriyānindreyeheva nihanti kusalo tathā.|| || 745 Saddhaɱ viriyaɱ samādhiɱ ca satiɱ paññañca1 bhāvayaɱ,|| Pañca pañcahi hantvāna anīgho yāti brāhmaṇo.|| || 746 So atthavā so dhammaṭṭho katvā vākyānusāsaniɱ,|| Sabbena sabbaɱ buddhassa so naro sukhamedhatī' ti.|| || ---- 726 To a Monk came these inspirations, To the bhikkhu(monk) Pārāpariya, As he sat alone, secluded, World-detached and meditating: 727 What is there of course or order, What is there in rite, or conduct, Which may make a man accomplish That which to himself is owing, Nor work harm on any other? 728 Lo! the parts and powers of humans Make for welfare and for evil: Powers unguarded make for evil, Guarded powers make for welfare. 729 One who guards parts and powers, One who tends parts and powers, He may do to self his duty, Nor work harm on any other. 730 If he go with unrestrained Power of sight among sense-objects, All the evil never discerning, He did not escape from sorrow.3 731 If he go with unrestrained Power of hearing sounds about him, All the evil never discerning, He did not escape from sorrow. 732 If in many kinds of odours He indulge, voluptuously, Way of refuge never discerning,4 He did not escape from sorrow. 733 Taste of sour and sweet and bitter Relishing and pondering over, Cleaving to desires of palate: Never his heart will be awakened. 734 Lovely, luring things of contact, Touching, feeling, pondering over, Lust-exciting, he impassioned Finds many forms of sorrow. 735 Yes, who in these sense-impressions Cannot guard the mind recipient, Sorrow by that will pursue him, Even by way of all five senses. 736 Body full of blood and matter And of many other foul things, So by human skill and wit is Rendered fair like painted casket, 737 That the bitter suffering from it Shows as sweetly satisfying, Bound to what we hold beloved, As a razor blade, that's hidden beneath thick crust of honey-syrup, 297 Undiscerned the greedy.5 738 He who dotes on form of woman, Taste and touch and scent of woman, Finds many shapes of sorrow. 739 All that emanates from woman6 Permeating men's senses, - This and that man's five gates open, - 'Gainst all these to make a barrier If a man have grit and valiance, 740 He is wise and he is righteous, He is clever and far-seeing; For he may, at ease and cheerful, Set himself to righteous duties. 741 When immersed in temporal profit,7 If he shun vain undertakings, If he judge it right to shun them, He is earnest and far-seeing. 742 Is a work with good connected, Is his love set on the Ideal,8 Let him take the work and do it; Other loves that Love surpasses. 743 Many, manifold the methods By which man his fellows cheates; attacking, killing, much afflicting He with violence oppresses.9 744 As a strong man practing woodcraft, Uses nail to remove a nail out, 298 So the wise and virtuous monks Use one power to strike out others: - 745 Faith and effort, concentration, Mindfulness and wisdom plying, Five by other Five removing away, Goes the saint from flaws released.10 746 He is wise and he is righteous; He has kept the Rule proclaimed Wholly, fully by the Buddha. He is happy, he did prosper. ---- 1 Connected with, perhaps, but not identical with, the Pārāpariya of CXVI. of the Rājagaha Pārāparas. This one is the Pārāpariya of CCLVII. 2 The only Sutta I can discover with this title (Indriya-bhāvana) is the last Sutta in the Majjhima Nikāya. This refers to the methods used by the brahmin(priest) teacher Pārāsariya, and then gives the method of 'faculty-training' taught in the 'Ariyan Vinaya,' the Buddha speaking (at Kajangalā, not Sāvatthī), and the interlocutors being Uttara, the brahmin's pupil, and Ānanda. Identity of subject is the one thing connecting Sutta and poem. There is no identity of treatment, and the two problems are set up: (1) Was Pārāpariya paraphrasing another version? (2) Was Pārāpariya Pārāsariya himself? 3 The Commentary supports the reading na hi muccati, altered by Neumann. 4 Dr. Neumann's 'Und nicht die freie Höhe sieht' is perhaps unnecessarily free, and is scarcely a good antithesis to fragrant odours, as anyone knows who has left a bad smelling Alpine village for the odours of the flower-covered uplands in June. 5 'As one greedy of sweet things licking the edge of a razor' (Commentary). 6 Lit., streams - i.e., her visible shape, etc., objects of sense (Commentary). The Pali is more refined than the Neumann German version, and the dragging in again of the maligned concrete 'Weib'- 'Wo nieder man zum Weibe sinkt' - is entirely unwarranted by the Pali. 7 The Commentary upholds the atho (in exegesis tato) sīdati saññutaɱ. adding 'if he lays hold of good of a temporal kind.' 8 Dhammagatā rati - lit., set on the Path(Dhamma). 9 Redundant padas, omitted in translating, have got into the Pali. 10 Here again the German translation misses the point. Satisfaction with the five modes of sensuous pleasure is to be ejected by the five modes of spiritual sense, sense-powers or faculties by spiritual powers. See XV., n. 2, and Compendium, p. 180. Cf.''above, verse 725, ''n. There is a play on words in āṇi, nail, anīgho, flawless, untranslatable in English. ----